[punky]

Originally Posted by Damien

I think the NUS conducted themselves appropriately throughout this entire protest. They worked well the the police, they deplored the violence in strong terms, and the actual march they organised was peaceful and well managed.

There is a good video of some students outside the Tory HQ chanting against those who were throwing things from the roof.

The reporting of the protest this morning has been keen to differentiate between the students and those who attached themselves in the march in order to cause disruption. A former senior member of the flying squad said the same on the radio this morning, that the NUS would never have been the problem but rather a professional group of troublemakers who use all marches to cause trouble.

As such I don't think sympathy will evaporate. As I mentioned previously a lot of people will either have been a student or be closely related to someone who was/is/will be a student. It's too big a demographic to effectively tar them all with the same brush, that really only works when people have had little exposure to the group in question.

That's true for most students involved but it wasn't entirely an equal split between the peaceful student protesters and the militant professional May Day protesters who hijacked the event.

The woman I alluded to before (couldn't post the link as I was on my phone) was Clare Solomon, president of the University of London Student Union. And there's this:

The document was signed by John Wadsworth, Goldsmiths lecturers' union president and a senior lecturer in education, and Des Freedman, a lecturer in communications and cultural studies.

It said: “The real violence in this situation relates not to a smashed window but to the destructive impact of the cuts and privatisation that will follow if tuition fees are increased and massive reductions in HE funding are implemented.”

We're talking a small minority but it's squeaky wheels that get the grease.

Originally Posted by Sparkle

Anyhow, you missed the point in that in this country, the tax burden is already near insurmountable and to add on £9K debt on top is too much.

£9k is too much? You can't get a Ford Fiesta for that. So a decent education seems pretty good value.

A £9k debt is not much to ask when most people will earn at least £10k a year more year-on-year with a job as a result of having a degree and if they don't, they don't pay it back. Its a gamble you can't lose.

People these days want everything for nothing. I left with near-enough £9k and I don't think that was unreasonable.